


End Of Small Sanctuary

by SomeSunnyDay



Series: Tiernan and Vargas [1]
Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Blood and Violence, Gore, It's not heavily described, M/M, Non-Explicit Sexual Content, they're messed up but they're ok with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:45:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22961128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeSunnyDay/pseuds/SomeSunnyDay
Summary: Sometimes the houses you live around have monsters, even if it doesn't look like it.
Relationships: Jimmy "Mmy"/Edgar Vargas
Series: Tiernan and Vargas [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1656697
Kudos: 3





	End Of Small Sanctuary

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea I came up with while walking home a while ago- I looked at a house. It was real odd since I'd never seen one with like- a puke yellow porch light.
> 
> So I thought of who might live there, Jimmy came to mind. I saw another house a separate time and made that the basis for Edgar's house.
> 
> This fic is all over the place and I don't know how to describe it lol

There’s a house on a half paved, half dirt street. The yard is spacious with chain fencing inside. It’s an off putting house.

Why is this house important?

Well, it belongs to the Tiernan's. A cop family famous for legacy children. Except, one Jimmy Lee Tiernan. 

The front porch was nice, but with a shower curtain covering the front entrance, the lemon yellow porch light was the only thing on the majority of the time. You could see Jimmy standing out behind the curtain, watching you, sometimes.

Jimmy is-..troubled, to put it lightly. In recent memory, he shoved a mouse in a tupperware container and put it in the microwave. You probably know what happened when he pressed start on it. 

Jimmy’s a slippery thing, always getting into trouble but never staying in it long, he’s the son of a well respected officer, you’d imagine the amount of things he gets away with.

And Jimmy gets away with a lot.

Today, he was arrested (not really, just zip tied.) and released. He stole a firearm from a store. Said he was going to shoot the birds. 

He went home and used a slingshot with metal balls instead.

_________

There is a house in a cul-de-sac. The yard is an acre with a wooden fence. It’s a religious house.

This house is important as well.

This house belongs to the Vargas’. A Christian family with a high stance in the town church. Including the only child to the family, Edgar.

The front has a garden, the porch is concrete and the front door is a blood red. Mrs. Vargas was almost always working on her roses and daffodils. Edgar was almost always inside somewhere.

Edgar was also troubled. Emotionally detached to most things, mentally boarded up from simple conversations. He too stuck animals in things. Acids and powders. He was too curious for society’s comfort.

Edgar was a quiet one, never speaking unless spoken to, easy to lose track of. His father never bothered to ask about why he was like that, you could see how that would become a problem, hm?

Always by himself, Edgar lived. He stayed out of the way, one misstep and it could all come down, cracking; chipping off. 

You can hear him walking around in the desert area by his house, whistling long winded notes of a disjointed tune.

Today Edgar got a hold of a human finger, best not to ask where.

He moved through the shed in the backyard, skinning it and putting those bits of skin in little jars. Studying the rate of decay.

He stayed in the shed until dinner time, then went to bed after he sat with his mother and helped her with her work uniform.

____________

There’s a clearing in the desert surrounded by dead honey mesquite trees.

Edgar picks up his best animals in and around the clearing. It’s his favorite place to sit and sketch the carasses. 

He sits around until the sun starts to set, he gets up and takes the basket of rabbits and birds back home. Edgar spends the rest of the night shaving and taking the bones out of the chests of the animals.

___________

Jimmy watched a guy leave the clearing by his house every time he could. He’d sit there for hours doing whatever he did over there, and he always left with a basket of dead animals.

Jimmy wondered who he was. Was he like him? Jimmy also had a hard time with emotional connections, his father always encouraged those times of emptiness as a sign of strength. Jimmy liked to think he was strong, was the guy in the clearing strong?

Jimmy watched him leave, but this time he has his terrain shoes, he’s going to follow this guy back to his house.

As Jimmy ducked behind the fence he heard a woman call for him, “Edgar!- Mijo! Get inside dinner’s ready!”

_ Edgar, huh? _

Jimmy moved and walked back to his house, good thing they don’t live too far away from each other, about 2 miles away.

__________

Jimmy sat in the clearing with a quail in a decorative towel for Edgar. His mom always says to introduce yourself with gifts.

Edgar comes up a little while after Jimmy gets there. He turns the corner and he and Jimmy stare at each other. There’s a deadly look in Edgar’s eyes,  _ how dare you come into my space and sit there like it’s yours. _

Jimmy smiles, he’s very aware of how chipped his teeth are, he hopes Edgar finds them as cool as he does.

Edgar stands there, he doesn’t say a word. Jimmy puts his hands up, because from what he’s seen Edgar do, he’s not very keen on losing his fingers. He reaches over and Edgar watches him with a blank expression, as he puts the towel in front of himself.

Jimmy gets up slowly and extends his gift to Edgar, he takes it with the same blank expression.

When he opens it, sees the quail, he smiles. It’s very small, his smile. Jimmy notices it since he hasn’t stopped watching Edgar’s face since he got up.

“..Thank you.” Edgar’s voice is soft. Very quiet and Jimmy wants to hear more of it. Jimmy nods and says “You’re welcome.”

Edgar puts out his hand to shake, to which Jimmy takes, only now noticing the hospital gloves.

“Jimmy, nice to meet you.” there was a silence, a shake. “Edgar, nice to make your acquaintance as well.”

For the next 3 hours, Edgar and Jimmy talk about what they like to do in their respective spare time. Edgar raised his eyebrows at Jimmy’s microwaved mouse.

“Yeah! It just fuckin’” Jimmy makes an explosion sound and laughs, “I looked inside the tupper and had to step outside ‘cause man- that shit smelled narly.”

Edgar chuckled a little, “I have to do that sometimes with the acids I use, not a very forgiving smell is it?”

Jimmy laughed more and shook his head, “Hell no it’s rank as shit!”

Edgar shakes his head at Jimmy’s description, He smiles at it.

When Edgar has to go home Jimmy shakes his hand again.

When Edgar goes back to his shed he places the quail on a shelf where he can see it and stares at it until he has to wipe the tears from his face. He’s never really felt understood by anyone before, it’s a painful feeling to him, he doesn’t like it.

He goes inside and cries in his mother’s lap before she has to go to work.

__________

Jimmy kicks off his school shoes and he screams into his hands,  _ fucking Darcy, that redneck inbred bitch. _

He moves his bag from where he threw it on his bed and he lays down. He and Edgar have been meeting in the clearing for a month, he makes Jimmy feel like it’s not just him against the world anymore.

_ Maybe, _ Jimmy thinks, his hand goes down to undo the button on his jeans,  _ maybe me and Edgar could kill Darcy together. _

Jimmy looks over to his nightstand and he sighs, he needs more tissues.

__________

Edgar sits with his knees to his chin, in the corner of his bed. He’s trying to will away the tightness in his pants. He thought about Jimmy again.

His mother understands more than his father does, he tried to explain his feeling towards Jimmy and she nodded while his father gave him a disapproving look. They argued about it while Edgar was taking a shower.

Now Edgar is very torn on just taking care of himself because, damn it he has the right to, and sitting there fearing the Lord’s disapproving presence.

He sighs as he unwinds himself, he’s going to take care of this. He shucks off his pants and socks.

As he slips his hand over his throat, he wonders how Jimmy tastes.

________

Jimmy sits across from Edgar, they added chairs to the clearing recently. 

Jimmy has a cherry sucker in his mouth and Edgar internally seethes. He wants so badly to take it out of his mouth and push the book out of his hands, he wants Jimmy to pay attention to him. His mother told him to use his words when talking to people, they don’t automatically know what he’s feeling just by looking.

“Jimmy.”

Jimmy looks up from his page, “Hm?”

Edgar curls his hands over the wood of the chair, “Pay attention to me please.”

Jimmy knits his face up, “Pay attention how?”

Edgar clenches his hands once he puts them in his lap. “I-..” he flicks his wrist to the sucker and book and sighs,  _ words are difficult sometimes. _

Jimmy takes a moment, once he figures it out he sets his book down, “I gotta keep the stick in my mouth, but don’t worry babe I can multitask.”

Edgar nods and Jimmy moves his chair right in front of Edgar and he looks at him. Edgar raises his head just slightly.

Jimmy sets his chin in his hands, never breaking eye contact. Edgar moves his hand and slowly takes the sucker out of Jimmy’s mouth, he turns it with his fingers before putting it in his.

Edgar opens his mouth to let Jimmy see, the sucker falls to the tip of Edgar’s tongue and he holds it there with his teeth. Jimmy’s eyes go wide as he looks up then down to his shoes.

“..Wow..you-..you look nice like that..” Jimmy clears his throat and moves his shirt down to cover himself.

Edgar smiles and gives Jimmy his sucker back. Edgar hums, Jimmy always knows what he means if he gives him enough time to understand it,

_________

Edgar slams the shed door and locks the knob. He’s about ready to rip his hair out. Edgar sits down at his desk and kicks the metal box underneath it.

His father said to never see Jimmy again. He saw Jimmy kiss Edgar’s cheek when he came home today. His mother helped clean the cut from his father’s ring under Jimmy’s eye and sent him home. She and his father are fighting now as Edgar sits in the shed, even though he can still hear them slightly.

_ You live under my roof, you live under my rules. _

Edgar hit the desk with his fist and got up roughly. Fuck it, he’s going to go over to Jimmy’s house.

________

Jimmy opens the front door and his father looks at him, “What happened?”

Jimmy sets his bag on the kitchen chair, “I kissed Edgar’s cheek n’his old man decked me in the face.”

Now, Jimmy’s father doesn’t necessarily agree with Jimmy’s lifestyle but he is his son and it’s none of his business. However, what is his business is what happens to Jimmy. No one hits his son.

“Where does Edgar live?”

Jimmy sighs, “A few miles west, down on Betty.” his father nods as a knock sounds from the door. Jimmy gets up to answer, he opens the door and Edgar shuffles through.

“Good afternoon Chief.” Edgar sat at the table, “I apologize for my father, if you’ll allow.”

Jimmy’s father nods, “Your apology is accepted but I’d still like to speak with your father if at all possible.” Edgar nods. Jimmy sits next to Edgar and he puts his head on his shoulder, he gestures for his father to leave and he does.

“I’m sorry for causin’ you issues babe.”

“It’s alright Mon Cœur, my father just uses the Old Testament too much in his views.”

Jimmy looks up and asks quietly, “Y’wanna go impale quails?”

“Yes please.”

_________

Jimmy pushes Edgar down on his bed and sits on his lap, “C’mon babe, m’not gonna bite you.”

Edgar looks to the side, he doesn’t want to do this right now. 

“No Jimmy, not tonight.”

Jimmy groans, “Ugh- is it because I smoked earlier? C’mon babe..”

Edgar looks at Jimmy, “You’re getting too comfortable with forcing me to do things Tiernan.”

Jimmy immediately gets up off him, he learned the hard way about what it means when Edgar uses his last name to address him.

“Sorry babe.” Jimmy sits on the floor, “Hey what’s the matter, hm? Did you have to throw out another jar?”

Edgar sits up and gets down on the floor with Jimmy and lays his head on Jimmy’s lap, his eyes start to water, “I had to throw them all out, Mama was getting worried.”

Jimmy clicks his tongue, “Aw, Eddie..c’mere baby..” He lifts Edgar’s head and guides him back up to the bed. He lays Edgar’s head on his chest as he cries. Jimmy remembered when Edgar tried to explain what the jars meant to him, they’re  _ very  _ important to his way about things, his system.

They fall asleep and Edgar has to stay over for a few days.

__________

“He tried to hit me..” Edgar is angrily pacing, Jimmy’s giving his best attempt at listening. He kicks up dirt and waves his arms as he talks, “He tried to hit me! Said he would beat the sin out of me if he had to.”

Jimmy gets up and sits Edgar down, “I won’t let that happen Eddie- you watch, I’m gonna fuckin’ skin him and force’m to eat his own flesh like n’animal. Just for you babe..”

Edgar sighed, “Would you really?”

“‘Course Eddie, anything for you.”

“Thank you Mmy..”

Jimmy nodded and kissed Edgar’s head.

___________

“Mijo..Mama has to leave..”

Edgar sat on the couch with his mother, tears in his eyes.

“Papa’s not happy with me right now, and he hurt me very badly.”

Edgar nodded, he knew his father would do that to his mother on occasion. It only really stopped because of the reputation he had to keep, since he isn’t worried about that too much now he’s reverting back to his old ways.

“I’m going to stay with Abuelita, but I don’t know if I’m going to come back this time Mijo. I want you to come with me, but I know you’ve made up your mind not to.”

Edgar nodded again, “I’d much rather deal with this by myself Mama, thank you for understanding.”

She nods and Edgar kisses her head when he leaves.

_________

“C’mon babe, that’s it..”

“Why-  _ nh _ \- does this have to hurt-”

“This hurts?”

“Yes-  _ fuck _ -”

“Sorry babe, I’ll go in slower.”

“Thank you.”

__________

When Edgar’s mother leaves he starts hurting animals, now- instead of for study it’s to inflict the most amount of pain.

He sits there with his hands in the bowels, the animal kicking the air.

He lifts the intestines out. There’s a knock at the door. He knows his father’s heavy hand when he hears it.  _ Good- let him watch. _

“Come in.”

The door opens and Edgar pulls out more of the large intestine, feeds it into the metal box.

His father stares in shock as Edgar smiles.

“Just think,” Edgar breaks the leg bone of the rabbit on the table off, “This could be you, at any given time..”

Edgar turns around in his chair, “God can’t save you from me.” He waves the foot, dangles it in his hand as an example.

He gets up and walks to his father, his father gets defensive, “You have a demon in you son, we need to get you to see the priest immediately.”

Edgar shakes his head, “I don’t think that’ll work. Now move please so I can get the rest of the rabbits outside.” He grips his father’s arm to move him and he shoves Edgar back. 

Edgar staggers into a shelf, he takes a breath and rushes towards his father, he moves him. His father turns him around, raises his fist, hits him. His ring leaves a gash in his cheek, Edgar pushes him, he falls backwards, hits his head. Edgar huffs and kicks his body slightly. He’s out cold.

Edgar smiles, blood flowing down his face, “Well- best to call Jimmy now.”

__________

“Hey Pop! I’m goin’ over to Edgar’s to help him with his yard!”

“What do you know about helping with yards kid? You barely want to keep up with our own!”

“Edgar said he needed help digging holes.”

“For what?”

“To get rid of the weeds.”

__________

“Fuck Eddie- he got you good..”

Jimmy’s sat up on the counter wiping the blood off Edgar’s face, the gash in his cheek needs to be stitched.

“How do you think this’ll play out?”

“Well- Y’need an alibi. You’ve got me n’Pop so that’s really all y’need. As for how the shit went down,” Jimmy rubs Edgar’s arm and nods. He grips and twists it.

Edgar jolts back, Jimmy continues, “You need to have more than the gash.”

Edgar nods. 

“See, it goes like this.. _ You get back from the store-  _ don’t worry I bought candy earlier so we can say you were going up to meet me _. So you get back, you start cleaning the shed-  _ ‘cause like you want to have a fresh work surface n shit don’t worry Pop’ll know how to put it-  _ and your old man comes in unannounced, barges in, starts yellin’ at you, threatening you and your mom. Says he’s gonna go over to where she’s staying n’hurt her if you don’t do what he says, obey his rules or some shit. Obviously you try to protect her and you put your foot down but he ain’t having it. So you get up to leave and call her but he grabs your arm- _ ”

“Ah. Now I understand why you grabbed it- but Jimmy, big question- where are you in all of this? Since you just got here. You said I was going up to the store to meet you but I didn’t come back  _ with  _ you.”

Jimmy nods, “I got it- Pop gave me cash to give to you since your old man doesn’t want you around me we meet up in secret, you need the cash for the bus to go see your mom.”

Edgar nods and Jimmy gets off the counter. He gets close to Edgar’s face, smiling, “So.. _ he grabs your arm..you jerk away n’try to defend yourself since he doesn’t like it when you’re not following his orders. He punches you when you try to shove past him. Like any normal person, you fight back but you.. _ ” Jimmy drags his hand over Edgar’s back, “.. _ accidentally..knock him out and you call me n’Pop to get help.” _

Edgar sighs, he tilts his head back.

Jimmy kisses his neck softly, “You’re gonna need to be sad and scared for me, you didn’t mean to knock him out, yeah?”

Edgar swallows, “Alright..”

“You’re gonna be scared to call me..to ask for help since you don’t know if he’s dead or not, I convince you to talk to Pop- He’ll clear everything up and I can get rid of some evidence when they transport it to lockup.”

Edgar moves his head and takes off his glasses, “How will you do that?”

Jimmy laughs quietly, “I threatened the chick at sign-in a few times, she hasn’t bothered me when I go in there to get weed ever since..”

“So you got it now Eddie?”

Edgar nods and steps back from Jimmy, he looks to the floor and forces out tears. Jimmy smiles, “There you go babe, just like that.”

Jimmy picks up the house phone while Edgar sits on the floor, “Hey Pop- uh..I- I need you over at Edgar’s place- he..he got attacked by his dad.”

“Yeah- bring the butterfly tape- he got hit in the face kinda bad.”

Jimmy looks down at Edgar and he winks, “He’s real shaken, told me he didn’t know what t’say so he just asked for yard help.”

Jimmy nods, “Ok- see you soon.” and hangs up the phone.

Jimmy claps his hands, “It’s showtime Eddie, c’mon, let's get you on the couch so you can lay on me n’cry that way.”

__________

In a police station, there’s a young man, he sits in one of the conference rooms. He sits with his head in his hands, crocodile tears pooling in his palms.

There will be no charges brought against this young man. The plea was self defense and the jury bought it. The case lasted for a week. Lots of waiting.

Edgar turned 19 just the other day, his partner’s birthday isn’t far away from his, he turns 18. 

Jimmy opens the door and even though he looks worried, Edgar knows he isn’t. They sit there until Jimmy’s father comes and picks them up. Edgar and his mother have a talk on the way back to Jimmy’s house, she’s not coming back after all.

That night Edgar and Jimmy eat cake and break the wings off birds.

Edgar leans on Jimmy, he holds his hand. “..I love you.”

Jimmy turns his head slightly, “Love you too Eddie..”

So they sit behind the front porch curtain together, under that lemon yellow light, staring at the cars and people that pass by, the sun goes down, a fire red: like the sky was burning up.


End file.
